VTT creates a concept for St Petersburg’s ecological city planning

LEHTIKUVA/ HEIKKI SAUKKOMAA
The principles of ecological city planning in St. Petersburg are reinforced through building close together and through regulations that bring services close to those who use them.

VTT (Technical Research Centre of Finland) has created EcoGrad, an ecologically efficient concept compatible with St. Petersburg’s conditions. The EcoGrad concept includes a dense urban structure, a minimized transport requirement, maximization of public and light transport usage, minimization of energy consumption, use of renewable energy with maximum efficiency and sustainable solutions for waste and water management. The social and cultural impacts of the design have also been taken into consideration.

During the Implementation of an ecologically effective city plan in St. Petersburg project run by VTT, seven events were held with representatives of the city of St. Petersburg. At these events the elements of the concept were presented and feedback was given on how the different bits would be applied to local conditions.

A list of criteria was also drawn up during the project to determine which specific aspects should be included in ecological planning in the St. Petersburg area.

–In the future the goal is to develop tools for city planning in collaboration with local bodies based on this list of criteria. To make this pilot work we’re looking for collaborative partnership from an investor and a network of bodies to implement it, explains planning specialist Åsa Nystedt from VTT.

The EcoGrad project adapted the previously developed Ecocity concept to housing production and urban property development In Russia. In place of supplying materials and finished products in exports promotion the focus will shift more increasingly to developing comprehensive service concepts.

–There are also plans for a virtual platform concentrating on energy-efficiency that would function as a meeting point for different actors. The platform would be used by Finnish and Russian businesses as well as Finnish R&D bodies and universities, Nystedt adds.